On January 6, 2007, the business meeting of the American Historical Association passed an unprecedented resolution condemning recent government attacks on the free pursuit of historical knowledge. The resolution has been supported by more than one hundred fifty scholars and is subject to ratification by the association’s full membership in electronic voting March 1–9, 2007.

Resolution on United States Government Practices Inimical to the Values of the Historical Profession

Whereas the American Historical Association’s Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct emphasizes the importance of open inquiry to the pursuit of historical knowledge;Whereas the American Historical Association adopted a resolution in January 2004 reaffirming the principles of free speech, open debate of foreign policy, and open access to government records in furthering the work of the historical profession;Whereas during the war in Iraq and the so-called war on terror, the current Administration has violated the above-mentioned standards and principles through the following practices: excluding well-recognized foreign scholars;condemning as “revisionism” the search for truth about pre-war intelligence;reclassifying previously unclassified government documents;suspending in certain cases the centuries-old writ of habeas corpus and substituting indefinite administrative detention without specified criminal charges or access to a court of law; using interrogation techniques at Guantánamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and other locations incompatible with respect for the dignity of all persons required by a civilized society;

Whereas a free society and the unfettered intellectual inquiry essential to the practice of historical research, writing, and teaching are imperiled by the practices described above; andWhereas the foregoing practices are inextricably linked to the war in which the United States is presently engaged in Iraq; now, therefore, be it Resolved, that the American Historical Association urges its members through publication of this resolution in Perspectives and other appropriate outlets: to take a public stand as citizens on behalf of the values necessary to the practice of our profession; and to do whatever they can to bring the Iraq war to a speedy conclusion.

Alan Dawley, College of New Jersey
Ervand Abrahamian, CUNY Baruch College
Michael Adas, Rutgers University
Benjamin Alpers, Oklahoma University
David Applebaum, Rowan University
Chris Appy, University of Massachusetts
Armen Baghdoyan, Independent scholar and historian
David Barber, University of Tennessee at Martin
Michael Batinski, Southern Illinois University
Rosalyn Baxandal, SUNY College at Old Westbury
Marc Becker, Truman State University
William Beik, Emory University
Thomas Bender, New York University
Lyn Bennet, Utah Valley State College
Joyce Avrech Berkman, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Ira Berlin, University of Maryland
Magnus T. Bernhardsson, Williams College
Tracey Jean Boisseau, University of Akron
Eileen C. Boris, University of California, Santa Barbara
Constance Brittain Bouchard, University of Akron
Joye Bowman, University of Massachusetts
Renate Bridenthal, Brooklyn College (Emerita)
Ron Briley, Sandia Prep
Joan Louise Bryant, Rowan University
Shefali Chandra, University of Illinois, Urbana
Celia Chazelle, The College of New Jersey
Fredric Cheyette, Amherst College
John H. Coatsworth, Harvard University
Bruce Cohen, Worcester State College
Miriam Cohen, Vassar College
Stephanie Coonts, Evergreen State College
Frank Costigliola, University of Connecticut
John M. Cox, University of North Carolina
Dan Czitrom, Mt. Holyoke College
Robert Darnton, Princeton University
J.D.E. Degroat, St. Lawrence University
Ileen Devault, Cornell University
Charles Dew, Williams College
Gregory Michael Dorr, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jay Driskell, Yale University
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, California State University
Eileen Eagan, University of Southern Maine
Christine T. Ehrick, University of Louisville
Rosemarie Eichler, University of Akron
Carolyn Eisenberg, Hofstra University
Eileen Findlay, American University
John Fitzgerald, Longmeadow H.S., MA (Retired Dept. Chair)
Ian Christopher Fletcher, Georgia State University
Jerise Fogel, Winston Prep. School, NY
Eric Foner, Columbia University
Jeffrey Freedman, Yeshiva University
Tami Friedman, Brock University
Peter Frost, University of Mississippi
Irene Gendzier, Boston University
Marvin Gettleman, Brooklyn Polytechnic (Emeritus)
Nathan Godfried, University of Maine
Janet Golden, Rutgers University
Warren Goldstein, University of Hartford
Van Gosse, Franklin and Marshall University
Greg Grandin, New York University
Ann N. Greene, University of Pennsylvania
Robert Griffith, American University
Richard Grossman, Northeastern Illinois University
Atina Grossmann, Cooper Union
Jennifer Guglielmo, Smith College
Daniel K. Gullo, University of Chicago
Martin Halpern, Henderson State University
Michael Hanagan, Vassar College
John Mason Hart, University of Houston
Carla Hesse, University of California, Berkeley
John Higginson, University of Massachusetts
Reginald F. Hildebrand, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Walter Hixson, University of Akron
David Hostetter, Shepherd University
B.T. Huntlye, Front Range Community College
Maurice Isserman, Hamilton College
Tony Judt, New York University
Tom Kaiser, University of Arkansas
Marion Kaplan, New York University
Michael Kazin, Georgetown University
Kevin Kern, University of Akron
Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University
Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
Peter N. Kirstein, Saint Xavier University
Janet Klein, University of Akron
J. Morgan Kousser, California Institute of Technology
Michael Kwass, University of Georgia
Vinay Lal, UCLA
Fabio Lanza, University of Arizona
Bruce Laurie, University of Massachusetts
Jackson Lears, Rutgers University
Michael Levin, University of Akron
Nelson N. Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara
Peter Linebaugh, University of Toledo
Lester Little, Smith College
Jeff Livingston, California State University
Ngo Vinh Long, University of Maine
Thomas M. Luckett, Portland State University
Staughton Lynd, independent scholar
Henry Maar, California State University
Laura Mason, University of Georgia
Elizabeth McKillen, University of Maine
Jeffrey Merrick, University of Wisconsin
Richard H. Minear, University of Massachusetts
Carl Mirra, SUNY College at Old Westbury
David Montgomery, Yale University
Anna K. Nelson, American University
David Newbury, Smith College
Mary Nolan, New York University
Francis Oakley, Williams College
Enrique Ochoa, California State University
Arnold A. Offner, Lafayette College
Grey Osterud, independent historian and academic editor
Mark Overmyer-Velazquez, University of Connecticut
Maria Pascualy, Washington State History Museum
Roger Peace, Florida State University
Carla R. Petievich, Montclair University
Anne E. Phillips, Rowan University
Margaret M. Power, Illinois Institute of Technology
Jean Quataert, Binghamton University
Liam Riordan, University of Maine
Roy Rosenzweig, George Mason University
Peter Sahlins, Social Science Research Council
Neal Salisbury, Smith College
Martha Saxton, Amherst College
David Schalk, Vassar College
Sigrid Schmalzer, University of Massachusetts
Ellen W. Schrecker, Yeshiva University
Jeff Schutts, Douglas College
Joan W. Scott, Institute for Advanced Study
Scott W. See, University of Maine
Martin Sherwin, Tufts University
Sarah Shields, University of North Carolina
Shanti M. Singham, Williams College
Judith Smith, University of Massachusetts, Boston
David Snyder, Grand Valley State University
Hobart Spalding, CUNY (Emeritus)
Carole Srole, California State University Los Angeles
Ted Steinberg, Case Western Reserve University
Eric Strahorn, Florida Gulf Coast University
Lillian Taiz, California State University, Los Angeles
Baki Tezcan, University of California, Davis
Robert Tignor, Princeton University
Dale Van Kley, Ohio State University
William Van Norman, James Madison University
Mike Wallace, Gotham Center for New York City History
Chuck Walton, Yale University
David Watt, Temple University
Peter Weiler, Boston College
Jon Wiener, University of California, Irvine
Jocelyn A. Wills, City University of New York
Lawrence Wittner, SUNY Albany
Andrew Wood, University of Tulsa
John Womack, Harvard University
Marilyn B. Young, New York University